Lingyin Temple
Buddhist temple founded 326 AD amid grottoes of Song-era rock carvings.
Visitor info
- Opening hours
- 06:30-18:00
- Ticket
- 45 CNY temple + 45 CNY Feilai Peak
- Suggested visit
- 2-3 hours
Price is indicative — final quote on inquiry.
Why it's worth it
'Temple of the Soul's Retreat', founded 326 AD in a fold of forested hills west of the lake — still a working temple with 1,700 years of incense in its rafters, guarded by the Feilai Peak cliffs carved with 330 Buddhist figures from the 10th century.
Don't miss
- The laughing Buddha carving in the cliff grottoes at Feilai Peak — rub his belly like everyone else
- The Grand Hall's 24.8-metre camphor-wood Sakyamuni, gilded and calm in the smoke
- Morning chants with the resident monks — arrive before 8:30 to catch them
Getting there
Bus 7 or 318 from the city; taxis and bikes both work. The entrance sequence is Feilai Peak first, then the temple.
Tips
- Two tickets, one gate area: Feilai Peak caves and the temple are separately ticketed — most people buy both
- Free incense sticks come with entry; outside vendors' bigger bundles are officially discouraged
- The walk back to the bus stop past tea fields is the decompression — don't sprint it
Photos
More in Hangzhou
- Xixi National Wetland
Boat maze of reeds and water villages west of the city.
- West Lake
UNESCO lake of pagodas, causeways and arched bridges; boat or bike the shoreline.
- Longjing Tea Village
Terraced Dragon Well tea fields; tastings at family farms.
- West Lake Loop
A World Heritage Site (inscribed in 2011): an urban lake with misty hills on three sides and the city on the fourth, dredged in succession by two of its governors, Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo; Su Shi's verse "wishing to compare West Lake to the beauty Xi Shi" made it a byword for Eastern aesthetics
- Su Causeway & Bai Causeway
Su Causeway, 2.8 km long, was built from dredged silt when Su Shi dredged West Lake; six bridges span the lake, with peach trees and willows lining both banks—"Misty Willows over Six Bridges" is the top spring scene
- Leifeng Pagoda
The 2002 rebuilt pagoda on the ruins of the old tower that collapsed in 1924 (traditionally the "Huangfei Pagoda" built by a king of Wuyue): a steel structure shelters the original pagoda site, an elevator inside runs straight to the top floor for panoramic West Lake views, and the gilt silver Ashoka stupa unearthed from the underground palace is a treasure of Buddhist art